Baseball 2012 Season: For Cheap Tickets, Buy Now

The surplus of cheap baseball tickets will allow fans to see the Angels' $240 million slugger Albert Pujols (left) for a pittance.

Here comes the pitch, bargain-hungry baseball fans: Ticket-reselling sites are blooming with cut-rate deals for the regular season. Forget spring training; the games don't count. Seize this little-known opportunity for steals that matter. Many weekday games cost less than a Big Mac. Weekend games are just a tick more in some cases.

A phenomenon we'll call Season Ticket Dumping Syndrome is at play. Fans who already paid for full-season plans are eager to recoup some of what they shelled out for each team's 81 home games, according to TicketsNow spokeswoman Jennifer Swanson. So sellers put up blocks of tickets priced to move before the games begin. (Opening Day for most teams is April 5.)

"As the season progresses and top teams are determined, supply will go down and invariably prices do go up, making the preseason a great time to plan ahead and buy," Swanson said.

Even scalpers who troll the secondary markets have a tough time inflating prices. There are simply too many MLB games. Uncertain weather in April and competition from the NBA also affect prices.

Online ticket clearinghouses can level the playing field for cash-strapped fans. "We know that we have a robust secondary market and that is powered by a robust primary market," MLB spokesman Matt Bourne said, citing the 73.4 million fans who attended MLB games last season.

Huffington Post Money took a quick look Thursday afternoon at some of the bigger markets and prominent teams on StubHub, finding great values across the country.

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In New York, tickets for the Yankees after their first home series dipped consistently below $10 for weekdays and averaged a minimum of $15 on weekends until the crosstown Mets visit June 8. The Mets showed the same pattern at home, with modest price spikes for giveaways and weekends.

In Los Angeles, the Dodgers had seats for less than $10 for 29 straight home dates on StubHub after their home opener. Many went for $3. Even with a 10 percent fee ($5 minimum) on the buying price and $4.95 email delivery charge on StubHub (18.5 percent buying fee on TicketsNow), that's still a deep discount. The down-the-freeway Angels and their new $240 million toy, slugger Albert Pujols (pictured), had a slew of single-digit-priced tickets as well, including a few weekends.

In Chicago, the Cubs follow their first home series with lows of mostly $10-or-under weekday pricing. Many were for as little as $3, $4 and $5 until the Yankees visit on May 28. Minimums hovered in the low teens on weekends into May. As for the White Sox: With the exception of their first home series and a visit by the Red Sox, the White Sox also showed lots of sub-$10 seats for weekdays and low double-digit prices for weekends.

In St. Louis, many of the lowest-priced tickets for the World Series champion Cardinals (now without Pujols) were single digits for weekdays and under $17 for weekends into July.

In Miami, the Marlins have the novelty of their new ballpark to keep fans coming in, but we spotted $10-and-under tickets for weekdays and $11 and under for some weekends in the early going.

In Boston, the Red Sox, who charge a league-high face-value average of $53.38, showed no tickets on StubHub under $10.
Hey, you can't win 'em all.